| January is the month whose name indicates reflection and planning. The first calendar month is named after the two-faced Roman god Janus. It is a month when we look back at the past year and forward to the year to come. It is a time when more than 70 percent of us make New Year's resolutions. We remember what worked or didn't work for us in the past. We take stock of ourselves and assess our need for change in the new year. We remember past relationships and we assess potential new ones. We contemplate our future course. We either like the path we are on or decide a fresh new path is our best answer.
Therefore, it seems to be very appropriate that the start of voting in Election 2008 is within forty eight hours of New Year's Day. The early voting start in the new year is due to the fact that many states have moved their primary election dates forward into the first six weeks of the new year. Indeed, more than fifty percent of all delegates in each party will be chosen by the conclusion of voting on Super Tuesday, February 5, 2008.
This year, in addition to personal New Year's resolutions, voters will also have a political resolution to make. The voters decisions in this Presidential election primary are similar to the type of choices that are made with all personal resolutions on New Year's Day. We review our lives based on our past choices and decide if anything needs to be changed or improved to better prepare us for the future.
Consider that the candidates from our past, Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, are currently in trouble in the latest public opinion polls. Although both have campaigned on a platform of change, their credentials and profiles are very well known to voters. Both have been visible in American politics for the last two decades. The voters must decide if they want to continue their past relationships with both these candidates for at least the next four years. The current polls indicate that these old acquaintances could soon be forgotten by voters in favor of fresh new faces. The polls, especially in the last month, would indicate that voters are not in a great Auld Lang Syne mood at the moment. Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani hope that the voters' mood changes soon after New Years Day.
Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee are the beneficiaries of the voters current resolution for a new political face in the New Year. Each candidate is surging in the public opinion polls. Obama and Huckabee have campaigned as candidates for change in Washington D.C.. Both candidates hope that the voters continue to move toward their campaigns and do not reconnect with the familiar political faces of the past after New Year's Day.
In late December 2007, the polls indicate the races in both parties are very close. In the Democratic party, Obama and Clinton are in a statistical dead heat in the first four state primaries and caucuses. The Obama campaign has surged in the last month to narrow a large lead that Hillary Clinton held throughout 2007. Clinton has been running a campaign similar to an experienced incumbent. Her husband has been on the campaign trail reminding everyone who will listen of his two term presidency. Will voters find comfort in the New Year in these familiar faces or is it time for the new political relationships provided by Barack Obama or John Edwards?
In the Republican primary election, the surge of Mike Huckabee to the top of the national polls in the last six weeks has been nothing short of remarkable. The public opinion polls indicate that Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney will be the winners in the early primaries. Republican voters currently appear ready to embrace new political relationships as their resolution after the new year. However, remember that that over 90% of New Year's resolutions, although well intended, do not get accomplished. If this is the case, the voting in the later primaries in January and February may well favor a return to Rudy Giuliani and John McCain.
After the countdown and the New Year's ball falls at midnight on December 31, 2007, in Times Square, we will enter the year of 2008. People will make resolutions for the new year about diets, smoking, finances, health, relationships, exercise and many other things in their personal lives.
This year the American voter will also make a political resolution early in the New Year in the process to elect the next President in November of 2008. The real unknown is whether the voters will be in a mood for Clinton and Giuiliani and Auld Lang Syne or prefer a new and different political relationship? Will it be a New Year's resolution for a fresh new face and a vote for change or the comfort of the familiar candidate with a "back to the future" resolution for the new year?
Indeed, the political campaigns of the major parties Presidential hopefuls, Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Giuliani, Huckabee, Romney, Thompson and McCain await this New Year's resolution from the voter in early 2008.
James William Smith has worked in senior management positions for some of the largest financial services firms in the United States for the last twenty five years. He has also provided business consulting support for insurance organizations and start up businesses. Mr. Smith has a Bachelor of Science Degree from Boston College. He enjoys writing articles on political, national, and world events. Visit his website at http://www.eworldvu.com
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